Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters review

Space heroes return to normal size for a washed-out rehash of their PSP outing

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Normal hoppy-shooty gameplay aside, Size Matters spikes its relatively short run time with deviations from traditional gameplay, which include a fun space-combat sequence as a giant version of Clank, a BattleBots-style death arena and a handful of 2D, Lemmings-inspired puzzle levels for you to guide Clank's "Gadgebot" sidekicks through. And then there are the hoverboard races, a series of slow, frustrating (and mostly optional) competitions that offer no real sense of speed and are even more inane and difficult to control here than they were on the PSP.

Finally, there's the multiplayer, which survives the transition from PSP more or less intact, except that the robust, four-player wireless play has been pared down to a two-player split-screen mode. Still, what's here is still a lot of fun, with players able to tackle two different game types across four distinct multiplayer levels. There's Capture the Flag, which is self-explanatory, as well as Iron Lombax, which gives you different goals depending on the stage. In one, for example,you'll have to collect Martian cows with the Suck Cannon and blast them into a receptacle that'll turn them into a meat-crate, which you'll then have to carry over to a waiting truck. In another, you'll need to find and plant beacons on your enemy's shield generators, which will then attract floating mines and enemies to destroy them and open up the enemy base for bombing.

You can even team up with your second player to cooperate against an unseen opposing team, instead of just going head-to-head all the time. Apart from the online play and extra players, the only other thing missing is the deathmatch mode, probably because two players hunting each other in an open environment gets boring fast, especially when you can justflick your eyes up or down to see where your opponent is hiding.

In spite of all the sacrifices and questionable design decisions, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters is still a decent game, especially if you don't have the superior PSP version to compare it to. It's nowhere near as fun, as deep or as polished as the rest of the series, but if you're looking for a new game to keep your PS2 alive or a cheap thrill to tide you over until the next Ratchet & Clank Future, you could do a lot worse than this.

More Info

Genre

Action

Description

A nearly perfect portable edition of one of the finest, funniest action series around.

Franchise name

Ratchet and Clank

UK franchise name

Ratchet & Clank

Platform

PSP, PS2

US censor rating

Everyone 10+

UK censor rating

7+

Alternative names

R&C: Size Matters, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters

Release date

13 February 2007 (US), 11 May 2007 (UK)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.